16 Ideas for ‘Pot Lucking’ this Thanksgiving

When I was living in California, back in my wine-making days, I was introduced to the concept of ‘pot lucking’. If you’re in Australia you may know it as ‘bringing a plate.’

The idea is everyone brings something to eat to the party and you make a meal of whatever turns up. Personally I think ‘pot luck’ is a much more poetic name.

It’s a brilliant way to share the load, especially for large get-togethers when there are many mouths to feed. So with Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite dishes to take along to a pot luck event.

Basically you’re looking for dishes that are happy to sit around for a few hours. And things that aren’t too fussy about the temperature that they’re served.

And of course you want them to be super delicious and a little unusual so there are lots of comments of ‘who made the (insert your dish here)? It’s amazing.’ After all, aren’t we cooks all in it for the compliments? I know I am ;)

16 ideas for ‘pot lucking’ this thanksgiving

starters

2. Broad Bean Pesto – If it’s not broad bean season make it with frozen peas. Either way serve with crusty bread.

mains

3. Amazing Glazed Ham – if you’re in charge of the main protein forget about turkey and focus on the ham. A glazed ham is super forgiving and you don’t need to stress about getting it cooked through because it’s already cooked. You just need to focus on getting it looking gorgeous and glazed. I make this every year and this year we’ve even cured and smoked our own ham but you don’t need to go to that much trouble. The other great thing about ham is that is tends not to be ridiculously expensive.

4. Pecan Crusted Sweet Potato – if you need to keep the vegetarians happy, this is the main course for you! If you have any carnivore guests I can guarantee they’ll want to try this too.

sides

6. Lentil & Shaved Fennel Salad (recipe below) – I’m always surprised how many people don’t eat lentils very often but when they try them absolutely love the little fellas. Another happy-to-sit-around-and-be-served-however salad.

7. Green Chickpea Salad – chickpeas are still one of my all time favourite foods. And this salad is no exception. Kale makes a brilliant ‘pot luck’ salad green because it tastes better after a bit of time marinating in the dressing, more than you can say for most regular salad greens.

8. Burnt Carrot Salad – This is still on high rotation in our house. It’s best if you toss everything just before it’s time to eat, so it is a little bit higher maintenance. But worth it!

9. Preserved Lemon Potato Salad – the preserved lemon makes this salad far more exciting than a regular mayonnaise-heavy potato salad. There are 2 other delicious potato salad recipes to choose from on this page as well. If there’s an Irish person among the guests you may have them pledging their undying love for you… don’t say I didn’t warn you ;)

sweet treats

13. Toblerone Ice Cream Cake – only make this if you know there will be plenty of freezer space. Guaranteed crowd pleaser.

14. Croissant Surprise Cake – I can’t tell you how many readers have contacted me telling me of all the compliments they’ve had after making this cake. Great because it will sit at room temperature for hours or is equally happy straight from the fridge.

16. Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies – the salt makes them sightly unusual but apart from that they’re as good as cookies get. I love taking these to parties because they’re easy to serve and don’t create any washing up.

Do you have a favourite ‘pot luck’ recipe?

I’d love to hear about it in the comments…

lentil & fennel salad

As I mentioned above, I’m often surprised how many people don’t cook lentils but when they try them in something like this salad, get super excited. It makes me happy to share the lentil love.

I find most legume-based salads are very forgiving and most actually taste better after a few hours of being neglected.

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Thanks much, Jules for the great looking line up. When my wife gets back from babysitting the grandkids in Phoenix, we’ll contribute a fast, easy and healthy recipe for your consideration. By the way, your green pea curry is PHENOMENAL! Curry paste isn’t as easy to find in the Sonoran Desert, but we were able to locate it at an Asian food market. HOT stuff, and we used ‘mild!’

I always bring something sweet. I like to make brownies and I usually end up using your Best Ever Cocoa Brownies recipe. It’s so easy and delicious and I can easily vary it by adding different nuts and chocolate. I haven’t tried your croissant cake yet; I will soon though!

Yours is by far my fave “food/cooking” blog! The recipes are both fairly easy AND are still something special. Everything I’ve tried so far worked like a charm and I lovelovelove that you always include so many variations (esp. because I’m a vegetarian)!

Hi Jules,
I have made your ham each Christmas for the past few years for our Christmas with friends dinner (ahead of the classic roast turkey bonanza at my parents house). It’s fabulous, we love it. Delicious, easy and spectacular to serve with a few easy sides and then an ice cream Christmas pudding cake. Looking forward to it again in a few weeks time. Many thanks.
Kristen

Great post Jules, really love your blog been reading for a while but first time commenting :) I’ve been invited to my first Thanksgiving dinner this weekend (being in Australia, it’s not a massive thing) so these posts are very inspirational!

STONESOUP is a blog about healthy, simple, delicious weeknight dinners.I'm Jules Clancy. I LOVE simplicity and real food (especially veggies). I have a degree in Food Science and am the author of
"5-ingredients 10-minutes".